{"id":29629,"date":"2020-11-13T11:58:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T16:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=29629"},"modified":"2020-11-13T11:59:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T16:59:03","slug":"usps-whistleblower-richard-hopkins-gives-new-interview-detailing-coercion-tactics-used-by-fed-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2020\/11\/13\/usps-whistleblower-richard-hopkins-gives-new-interview-detailing-coercion-tactics-used-by-fed-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins Gives New Interview Detailing Coercion Tactics Used By Fed Agents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gKhXBU_IgYo\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>11\/11\/20 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectveritas.com\/news\/marine-veteran-and-usps-whistleblower-richard-hopkins-stands-by-original\/\">Project Veritas<\/a> &#8211; Marine Veteran &amp; USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins Stands By Original Account: I Did Not Recant; Hopkins Describes More Than Three Hours Kept in Room Without Lawyer or Union Rep With Post Office Agents: \u2018Grilling the Hell Out of Me\u2026I Just Got Played\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins: \u201cI don&#8217;t care who wins this election&#8211;I really don&#8217;t\u2026the end goal is that it&#8217;s a fair and correctly done election.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Richard Hopkins: I stand by my account.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Richard Hopkins: \u201cI honestly made an oath when I joined the Marine Corps\u2026military guys say, it&#8217;s a blank check. We never give up that check. We&#8217;re going to protect our country and our Constitution until the day we die.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Post Office Inspector General Agent Russell Strasser: \u201cThe reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, try to reel it back in before it gets really crazy.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>James O\u2019Keefe: \u201c[Hopkins] was a hero serving in combat with the Marines, and he is a hero for coming forward with this very serious allegation of late ballots in Pennsylvania being postmarked for Election Day.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N. Y.\u2014Nov. 11, 2020] The Erie, Pennsylvania post office whistleblower confirmed his original account of late ballots postmarked retroactive to Nov. 3, Election Day, at his post office, in an exclusive interview with Project Veritas founder and CEO James O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were grilling the hell out of me,\u201d said Richard Hopkins to O\u2019Keefe. \u201cI feel like I just got played.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Keefe said Hopkins\u2019 experience would have a chilling effect on government accountability and the willingness of whistleblowers to come forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard Hopkins is a hero,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a hero serving in combat with the Marines, and he is a hero for coming forward with this very serious allegation of late ballots in Pennsylvania being postmarked for Election Day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><b>Hopkins said coming forward was his duty as veteran\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hopkins told O\u2019Keefe he did not recant his account and he stands by it, especially as he thinks about his own service and what it means to him to be a veteran.<\/p>\n<p><b>James O\u2019Keefe:\u00a0<\/b><i>\u201cThere&#8217;s a lot of veterans watching this who served overseas. And there&#8217;s a lot of people who are calling you a hero. If you could just sort of speak to the issue of&#8211;I mean, you&#8217;re, you seem like a very normal guy who never asked for any of this&#8211;and you&#8217;re a veteran and a lot of people are calling you a hero for blowing the whistle on something very serious.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Postal Whistleblower Richard Hopkins:\u00a0<\/b><b><i>\u201c<\/i><\/b><i>I&#8217;m just doing my duty and just&#8211;I honestly made an oath when I joined the Marine Corps from the get-go and as most military guys say, it&#8217;s a blank check. We never give up that check. We&#8217;re going to protect our country and our Constitution until the day we die. That&#8217;s the point where that check is cashed in. And I&#8217;ve given that check and my heart to this country.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one should be treated the way Hopkins was treated by people claiming they wanted to protect him,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cHe did not recant his story. He affirmed it and stands by it\u2014despite the incredible pressure for him to call himself a liar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins, a Marine combat veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, told O\u2019Keefe that Russell Strasser, an agent with the U.S. Postal Service based in New York City, kept him in a room for more than three hours for an intense interrogation regarding his account.<\/p>\n<p><b>Post Office Inspector General Agent Russell Strasser bullied, coerced Hopkins<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK, this storm is getting crazy, right? It&#8217;s out of a lot of people&#8217;s control, and so the reason they called me in is to try to harness that storm, try to reel it back in before it gets really crazy,\u201d said Strasser. \u201cWe have senators involved. We have the Department of Justice involved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strasser presented himself as a friend and fellow veteran looking to protect him, Hopkins said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not while I am, actually, I am trying to twist you a little bit because in that believe it or not, your mind will kick in,\u201d Strasser said to Hopkins. \u201cWe like to control our mind and when we do that, we can convince ourselves of a memory, but when you&#8217;re under a little bit of stress, which is what I&#8217;m doing to you purposely, your mind can be a little bit clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins said he told Strasser that Project Veritas retained lawyers for him, but Strasser told him that did not count. There was also no union representative present.<\/p>\n<p>The postal service inspector general agent told Hopkins that part of his job of protecting him was to \u201cshave\u201d his memory of what he heard.<\/p>\n<p>Strasser also told Hopkins that he would be accused of raising the more than $130,000 donated on his GoFundMe page with deception unless he allowed Strasser to protect him.<\/p>\n<p>The IG agent said the best way to protect him was to have Hopkins sign an \u201cupdated\u201d statement that undercut his original account.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after he signed the Strasser statement, Hopkins was put on administrative leave without pay, Hopkins said.<\/p>\n<p>Although, he asked for a copy of his new statement, Strasser told him he could not have one, because it was part of an ongoing investigation, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday, House Democrats released the statement to the media.<\/p>\n<p><b>Hopkins original account<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hopkins swore in an affidavit that Nov. 4 he overheard his postmaster rebuking a supervisor for failing to postmark a late ballot Nov. 3, Election Day. He said he was standing close to the two men, but they could not see him standing there, because he was still sorting mail for his route behind bins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the stuff that&#8217;s going on behind the scenes, like what I&#8217;m talking about them doing at the PO [post office],\u201d he said. \u201cI don&#8217;t think&#8211;I wasn&#8217;t supposed to hear that&#8211;I was one of the last carriers in the building. I don&#8217;t even think he realized I was still there; you know what I&#8217;m saying? Backdating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins said he heard about the backdating, as he was preparing his mail for delivery, and he saw the Postmaster Rob Weisenbach with Darrell Locke, one of the supervisors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was casing my route and I saw the postmaster pull one of our supervisors to the side,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was pulling the supervisor, it was &#8211; and it was really close to where my case was\u2014so, I was able to hear, listen in and I heard him say to the supervisor that they messed up yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower said he was curious about what was messed up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told the supervisor they had postmarked one of the ballots for the fourth, instead of the third, because they were supposed to put them for third,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Strasser, who said he was there to investigate Hopkins account, focused instead on convincing Hopkins his account was flawed. \u201cWe&#8217;re going to do a different exercise to, to make your mind a little bit clear. So&#8211;but this is all on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>James O\u2019Keefe:<\/b>\u00a0<i>\u201cYou heard Weisenbach tell a supervisor, they were backdating the ballots to make it appear they&#8217;d been collected Nov. 3, you still stand by that?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Postal Whistleblower Richard Hopkins:<\/b>\u00a0<i>\u201cYeah, yes.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Strasser tried to undermine Hopkins\u2019 confidence in Project Veritas<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Hopkins said Strasser also tried to make him distrust Project Veritas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like they were trying to make me distrust y&#8217;all and at the same time it kind of affected,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, I was like, no, these guys [Project Veritas] have had my back since the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite his misgivings, he was still convinced Strasser was there to investigate his account, so he continued to speak with him.<\/p>\n<p><b>James O\u2019Keefe:<\/b>\u00a0<i>\u201cDid these federal agents have your back at this point, do you think these federal agents are really interested in investigating fraud?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Postal Whistleblower Richard Hopkins:<\/b>\u00a0<i>\u201cHonestly, I don&#8217;t think they are.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Hopkins told O\u2019Keefe he wants other whistleblowers to come forward and to trust Project Veritas. \u201cI will give it you guys that you guys have been helpful in this whole entire thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Marine combat veteran said the integrity of the election and our democracy depends on people speaking up when they see wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody out there who sees something or feels like there was something janky going on with this election to include postal workers that were picking up ballots and giving them to supervisors, you should come out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t care who wins this election&#8211;I really don&#8217;t&#8211;I&#8217;m going to laugh if we ended up electing Biden. I&#8217;m going to laugh if we elect Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the end goal is that it&#8217;s a fair and correctly done election&#8211;and that&#8217;s all I care about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QkNkQ2nDQfc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LISTEN TO THE RAW AND UNEDITED FULL INTERROGATION AUDIO<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-29630\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whistleblower-Hopkins478-300x176.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whistleblower-Hopkins478-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Whistleblower-Hopkins478.jpg 478w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11\/11\/20 Project Veritas &#8211; Marine Veteran &amp; USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins Stands By Original Account: I Did Not Recant; Hopkins Describes More Than Three Hours Kept in Room Without Lawyer or Union Rep With Post Office Agents: \u2018Grilling the Hell Out of Me\u2026I Just Got Played\u2019 USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins: \u201cI don&#8217;t care who wins [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-video-gallery","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29631,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29629\/revisions\/29631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}